Popular Articles

Failed States, Or The State As Failure?, Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article seeks to challenge a basic assumption of international law and policy, arguing that the existing state-based international legal framework stands in the way of developing effective responses to state failure. It offers an alternative theoretical framework designed to spark debate about better legal and policy responses to failed states. Although the article uses failed states as a lens to focus its arguments, it also has broad implications for how we think about sovereignty, the evolving global order, and the place of states within it.

State failure causes a wide range of humanitarian, legal, and security problems. Unsurprisingly, given ...

Nicaragua V. United States In The International Court Of Justice: Compulsory Jurisdiction Or Just Compulsion?, Thomas J. Pax

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

Classifying The Conflict In Syria, Terry D. Gill

International Law Studies

This article examines the classification of the current armed conflict in Syria under international humanitarian law. The article first sets out the factual background identifying the principal parties and their alignments and motivations. It then proceeds to examine the question of classification of conflict under international humanitarian law and discusses the contentious issue of the effect of lack of consent by the government of a State in relation to foreign intervention in an ongoing non-international armed conflict when such intervention is directed against one or more armed groups operating from within that State’s territory. It then proceeds to apply ...

Japanese Propaganda Poster 01

Japanese Propaganda Posters

Propaganda poster, in Chinese, produced by Japanese-sponsored governments in China during Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). These governments were established by major Japanese military commands, and posters were used to promote cooperation between Chinese and Japanese. English translation is "Please see how kind and affable the Japanese Army is." Chinese: 請看日軍和靄可親的態度.

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars have spent considerable effort determining how the law of war (particularly jus ad bellum and jus in bello) applies to cyber conflicts, epitomized by the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare. Many prominent cyber operations fall outside the law of war, including the surveillance programs that Edward Snowden has alleged were conducted by the National Security Agency, the distributed denial of service attacks launched against Estonia and Georgia in 2007 and 2008, the 2008 Stuxnet virus designed to hinder the Iranian nuclear program, and the unrestricted cyber warfare described in the 1999 book by two ...

Russia’S Annexation Of Crimea: The Mills Of International Law Grind Slowly But They Do Grind, Robin Geiss

International Law Studies

In her speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel unwaveringly said: “Europe’s borders are and will remain unalterable.” At the same time, however, most observers agree that Crimea will remain de facto under Russian control. Against this backdrop the article assesses the contemporary and possible future legal status of Crimea. Particular attention is given to the inseparability of the link between Russia’s unlawful use of force and the purported territorial status alteration of Crimea, the concept of remedial secession and Crimea’s current status as an occupied territory.

International Law Studies

Advances in technologies that could endow humans with physical or mental abilities that go beyond the statistically normal level of functioning are occurring at an incredible pace. The use of these human enhancement technologies by the military, for instance in the spheres of biotechnology, cybernetics and prosthetics, raise a number of questions under the international legal frameworks governing military technology, namely the law of armed conflict and human rights law. The article examines these frameworks with a focus on weapons law, the law pertaining to the detention of and by “enhanced individuals,” the human rights of those individuals and their ...

Leading From Behind': The Responsibility To Protect, The Obama Doctrine, And Humanitarian Intervention After Libya, Simon Chesterman

New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Humanitarian intervention has always been more popular in theory than in practice. In the face of unspeakable acts, the desire to do something, anything, is understandable. States have tended to be reluctant to act on such desires, however, leading to the present situation in which there are scores of books and countless articles articulating the contours of a right - or even an obligation - of humanitarian intervention, while the number of cases that might be cited as models of what is being advocated can be counted on one hand.

Sexual Assault And Rape In The Military: The Invisible Victims Of International Gender Crimes At The Front Lines, Stella Cernak

Michigan Journal of Gender and Law

In the past several years in particular, intra-military sexual assault and rape in the U.S. armed forces have been the focus of frequent media attention and intense congressional debate. Despite reforms, the rate of intra-military sexual crimes continues to remain high, as does soldiers’ wariness to report instances of sexual violence to military commanders. These problems and others have invigorated the position taken by some that outside judicial review of intra- military sexual crimes is necessary to provide justice to victims and lower the rate of intra-military sexual assault and rape. This Note argues that one of the primary ...

All Articles in Military, War, and Peace

The Korean War Through The Eyes Of Ray Deweese, Yulissa Y. Lara

Korean War

Ray DeWeese was born in Cleveland, TN on May 10, 1928 and has lived in Cleveland most of his life. He enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 years old and fought towards the end of World War II and went off to be a pilot and officer during the Korean War. This interview depicts Mr.DeWeese’s experience during World War II but digs deeper into the difficulty of being a pilot during the brutal Korean War. As Mr. DeWeese recounts his traumatic experience he emphasizes how his diligent training, hardworking comrades, and his Faith in God got him ...

Space Traffic Management Conference

Leveraging existing U.S. regulatory frameworks, as well as international organizations, will dramatically shorten the time needed to develop an effective Space Traffic Management concept. Both the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation have been working with the U.S. Congress to define and develop a Space Traffic Management concept that will allow the Office of Commercial Space Launch to begin a new mission that will help to ensure the safety and resilience of the space domain. Outside observers can easily see forward progress toward this, still, undeveloped concept. This paper explores potential final U.S. Space Traffic ...

International Law Studies

Advances in technologies that could endow humans with physical or mental abilities that go beyond the statistically normal level of functioning are occurring at an incredible pace. The use of these human enhancement technologies by the military, for instance in the spheres of biotechnology, cybernetics and prosthetics, raise a number of questions under the international legal frameworks governing military technology, namely the law of armed conflict and human rights law. The article examines these frameworks with a focus on weapons law, the law pertaining to the detention of and by “enhanced individuals,” the human rights of those individuals and their ...

Life of the Law School (1993- )

The Law (?) Of The Lincoln Assassination, Martin S. Lederman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Shortly after John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson directed that Booth’s alleged coconspirators be tried in a makeshift military tribunal, rather than in the Article III court that was open for business just a few blocks from Ford’s Theater. Johnson’s decision implicated a fundamental constitutional question that had been a source of heated debate throughout the Civil War: When, if ever, may the federal government circumvent Article III’s requirements of a criminal trial by jury, with an independent, tenure-protected judge presiding, by trying individuals other than members of the armed forces in a ...

If George Washington Did It, Does That Make It Constitutional? : History's Lessons For Wartime Military Tribunals, Martin S. Lederman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Congress has recently authorized military commissions to try individuals for domestic-law offenses—such as providing material support to terrorism, and conspiring to commit law-of-war offenses—in addition to offenses against the international laws of war. Such military tribunals lack the civilian jury and independent judge that Article III of the Constitution guarantees. The constitutionality of such an abrogation of Article III’s criminal-trial guarantees has been debated in many of the Nation’s wars, without clear resolution. The Article III question is now the subject of a potentially landmark case, al Bahlul v. United States, that the Supreme Court may ...

Partners And Legal Pitfalls, Brian Finucane

International Law Studies

Partnered military operations are an increasingly prominent feature of armed conflict and one which presents a distinct set of legal challenges to States assisting partners. This is particularly true of the war in Syria which is characterized both by States working with and through other States and non-State actors and by the widespread violation of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) by many of the parties. This article considers the legal implications of LOAC violations by a party to the conflict for the State or States providing it assistance and identifies risk mitigation measures that assisting States can adopt.

Icrc, Nato And The U.S. – Direct Participation In Hacktivities – Targeting Private Contractors And Civilians In Cyberspace Under International Humanitarian Law, Ido Kilovaty

Duke Law & Technology Review

Cyber-attacks have become increasingly common and are an integral part of contemporary armed conflicts. With that premise in mind, the question arises of whether or not a civilian carrying out cyber-attacks during an armed conflict becomes a legitimate target under international humanitarian law. This paper aims to explore this question using three different analytical and conceptual frameworks while looking at a variety of cyber-attacks along with their subsequent effects. One of the core principles of the law of armed conflict is distinction, which states that civilians in an armed conflict are granted a set of protections, mainly the protection from ...

Customary International Law, The Separation Of Powers, And The Choice Of Law In Armed Conflicts And Wars, John C. Dehn

John C. Dehn

After over fourteen years of continuous armed conflict, neither courts nor commentators are closer to a common understanding of how, or the extent to which, international and U.S. law interact to regulate acts of belligerency by the United States. This Article articulates and defends the first normative theory regarding the general relationship of customary international law to the U.S. legal system that fully harmonizes Supreme Court precedent. It then applies this theory to customary international laws of war to articulate the legal framework regulating the armed conflicts of the United States. It demonstrates that the relationship of customary ...

Hannibal At The Gate: Border Kids, Drugs, And Guns – And The Mexican Cartel War Goes On, Arthur Rizer

Arthur Rizer

This article argues that the current cartel war in Mexico represents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. Some have estimated Mexico, one of the United States’ closest allies, has lost more than 60,000 people in its drug war. That is approximately a murder every hour related to cartel violence. Some experts claim the death toll has been greatly soft-pedaled, with the government reducing violence by simply not reporting it, and that the actual death toll is over 100,000. These numbers do not even include the nearly 40,000 Americans who die ...

The War On Terror, How The Strategies Used By The United States Against Islamic Extremism Have Been Ineffective, Hein Paing

Student Works

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the ineffective strategies used by the United States and coalition forces in the fight against Islamic extremist terrorism. The continuation of terrorist groups acting in the name of Islam begs the question as to just how well have these strategies worked, and what further measures must be taken in order to quell the existence of these organizations?This will be done through the examination of tactics such as the deployment of troops, bombardments from airstrikes, and the restrictive rules of engagements. When explored thoroughly, it will be easier to ascertain exactly why ...

Mary Ellen O'Connell

The world faces tough arms control challenges from preventing the development and use of weapons of mass destruction to regulating the new weapons of the computer revolution. This article considers what works in arms control. Using military force in violation of international law to destroy nuclear facilities, to stop weapons shipments, or to punish the use of prohibited weapons typically fails. Diplomacy paired with lawful counter-measures has the superior track record. Reviving the art of diplomacy and re-committing to authentic international law will pay dividends in peace and security.

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

The principal purpose of this paper is to discuss the legal aspects of the global efforts to ban and eliminate landmines. In doing this, it is considered necessary to explain what landmines are; the nature and extent of security, social and environmental problems posed by landmines; the history and development of the international campaign to adopt a treaty banning landmines; and efforts made, and still being made, to implement that treaty. In these discussions, Nigeria will be used as a case study.

Children, Armed Violence And Transition: Challenges For International Law & Policy, Mark Drumbl

Mark A. Drumbl

Classifying The Conflict In Syria, Terry D. Gill

International Law Studies

This article examines the classification of the current armed conflict in Syria under international humanitarian law. The article first sets out the factual background identifying the principal parties and their alignments and motivations. It then proceeds to examine the question of classification of conflict under international humanitarian law and discusses the contentious issue of the effect of lack of consent by the government of a State in relation to foreign intervention in an ongoing non-international armed conflict when such intervention is directed against one or more armed groups operating from within that State’s territory. It then proceeds to apply ...

Integrating Lawfare And Warfare, Joel P. Trachtman

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

Current military campaigns are not waged solely on the physical battlefield, but in multiple other arenas. One such arena is lawfare: legal activity that supports, undermines, or substitutes for other types of warfare. In today’s law-rich environment, with an abundance of legal rules and legal fora, strategists must evaluate the full scope of possible legal argumentation. Lawfare can substitute for warfare where it provides a means to compel specified behavior with fewer costs than kinetic warfare, or even in cases where kinetic warfare would be ineffective. As a result, lawfare can be strategically integrated into military command structures to ...

Anonymous Armies: Modern “Cyber-Combatants” And Their Prospective Rights Under International Humanitarian Law, Jake B. Sher

Pace International Law Review

Cyber-attacks take many forms, only some of which are applicable to the law of war. This Comment discusses only those attacks sponsored by a government or non-state entity that have the goal of affecting morale or gaining political advantage, or those attacks amounting to tactical strikes on state or civilian infrastructure. In that vein, this Comment proposes the adoption of a new legal framework for determining the threshold that marks a participant in such a cyber-attack as a “cyber-combatant” by adapting the framework set by the Geneva Conventions and existing custom. This definition should encompass cyber-attacks perpetrated by states, unrecognized ...

Isis’S Get Rich Quick Scheme: Sell The World’S Cultural Heritage On The Black Market—Purchasers Of Isis-Looted Syrian Artifacts Are Not Criminally Liable Under The Nspa And The Mcclain Doctrine In The Eleventh Circuit, Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman

University of Miami Law Review

This article explores how an individual importing a looted artifact may face prosecution and liability in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. The article begins with a background section that provides additional information about the history of ISIS and ISIS’s current plundering scheme. The background section also provides the legal framework and historical treatment of looted art and stolen artifacts. In particular, this section explains the Eleventh Circuit doctrine on this issue, the McClain doctrine. The McClain doctrine applies the National Stolen Property Act (“NSPA”) to foreign found-in-the-ground claims. Supporters of the doctrine argue that it helps “prevent looting internationally without ...